ISAD 2023

Welcome to the 2023 
International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) online conference on our new site!

Welcome to the International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) Online Conference, October 1-31, 2023, celebrating the 26th time the Online Conference has been held! An enthusiastic team made up of Jia Bin, Anita Blom, McKenzie Jemmett, Pamela Mertz, Shilpa Sagwal, Manon Spruit and Bruce Imhoff will coordinate this year’s  event, continuing the hard work of Judy Kuster who ran previous Online Conferences. The ISAD online conference is a private initiative by volunteers, and totally independent from any organisation.

This year, the Online Conference will start October 1 and finish October 31, acknowledging the many events around the world on October 22, International Stuttering Awareness Day.

If browsing the conference on a computer or tablet device, navigate through the conference using the menu bar at the top. If using a mobile device, use the ‘Menu’ button at the top.

ISAD2023 logo One Size Does NOT Fit All, International Stuttering Awareness Day, October 22, 2023, www.isad.live Three different sized bricks floating above different shaped shadows

Complete logos will follow

Logo components (use to build logo in a different language)  
Logo high resolution.jpg. / Logo 820×312.png / Logo social media.png / Logo boxes.png / Logo text.png

Again many thanks to Mr. Levi Tawiah Dametey from Ghana for the creation of this year’s logo.

This year’s theme is
“One Size Does NOT Fit All. 
Video: Pamela Mertz

Welcome to the 2023 International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference. We’re glad you’re here.

This year’s theme is One Size Does NOT Fit All. This phrase means that a single solution or approach is not suitable for everyone, as different people have different needs and circumstances.This is particularly relevant to stuttering because stuttering is complex and can manifest in so many different ways, including physically, emotionally and attitudinally. Everyone who stutters, stutters differently. It can vary in severity, frequency and type across individuals, with some stuttering mildly, some even able to hide it, while others may have more persistent stuttering and struggle behavior.

Sometimes people who stutter might want help with their stuttering, which may include therapy to reduce or modify stuttering or just to stutter more comfortably or easier, or might include wanting to meet others who stutter to feel supported and perhaps work towards acceptance.

Whatever approach is chosen should be tailored to each person’s unique goals in order to achieve the best possible outcomes.

One Size Does NOT Fit All also means considering cultural and linguistic factors. Some cultures may have different attitudes towards stuttering, and being perceived as different may be highly stigmatized, both personally and publicly.

Some may view stuttering as a minor inconvenience while others may view it as a major issue that severely impacts quality of life.

It is important to recognize that people’s attitudes toward stuttering are quite diverse and that it is important to approach stuttering with sensitivity and respect and to include all of the people in the stuttering community – people who stutter, family members, school and employer communities and the professionals who work with and help people who stutter.

We want to hear from you. Share your thoughts on what One Size Does NOT Fit All means to you. Write a paper, a story or poem. Record audio or video. We want you to share your experiences with the world. Instructions for contributing are below.

Have a great conference.

Kind regards
The International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference Team

Feel free to use the logo and #ISAD2023

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Index

Instructions for Submissions

Requirements for submissions to the International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference

We are calling for submissions:

  • for the ISAD Online Conference
  • for associations to record activities their associations are doing for International Stuttering Awareness Day on October 22 on ‘ISAD Around the World.’
  • All submissions must be emailed to isad@isad.live
  • All submissions must be sent by August 31st.

We welcome submissions from not only People Who Stutter (PWS) and professionals in the field of stuttering (for example, SLPs/SLTs and researchers), but also from those who are the partners, parents, children, friends, teachers, colleagues and other allies.

KIDS CORNER, TEENS CORNER and PARENTS CORNER
We will continue our KIDS CORNER, TEENS Corner, and PARENTS CORNER. We invite kids (-12) and teens (13-20) and parents of children who stutter to share a submission (paper, poem, artwork, short video etc.) aligned with the conference’s theme. We are excited to hear about stories and experiences about young people and thoughts to help spread awareness and provide a light to others. IMPORTANT: With kids and teens submissions, we require parental consent for all under 18, to be sent to isad@isad.live, in order for content and photos to be posted, once accepted by the conference committee.
We’d also like to hear uplifting stories and experiences from PARENTS with children who stutter. How you help your child, stories about good practice in schools, a warm connection between your child and its SLP, etc.

We ask for people to commit in a number of ways.

  1. Write a paper
    • Write a paper (in English). These submissions MUST be 2000 words or less.  You are welcome to submit shorter documents.
    • Please provide a title.
    • Your submission must be directly aligned with the theme. Where the link between your submission and the theme is unclear, authors will be asked to provide additional descriptive text explaining the relationship between the submission and the theme. If the submission is not aligned with the theme, your submission might be rejected.
    • Submissions, in the format of a piece of poetry, a song, a drawing or other cultural expressions are also welcome.
    • If you quote or use material from another person, please cite the reference at the bottom of the paper (APA referencing is preferred).
    • Papers should be provided in text (TXT), rich text format (RTF) or Word (DOC/X) format.  Do not submit PDF. Images can be included, but rather send attached.  Special fonts should not be used, as all papers will be presented in the same style. 
    • The team will assess all submissions and may ask for clarification, shortening or rewording if necessary.  
    • Please do not use complex formatting or language, as many visitors may not be native speakers of English.  If you have something visually complex to include, convert it into an image and send the image attached to your submission.
    • The review panel will maintain the ethical and moral integrity of the conference. Submissions with a primary focus of the author’s own work (for example therapy, book, device) with an intent to promote said work for personal or business gain will be rejected outright.
    • All submissions must be accompanied by a photo and a bio, in a separate file from the submission. The bio is a short introduction of who you are and your background. It must not be more than 150 words.
    • All images should be attached as separate attachments. Images in PDF documents are not acceptable.
  2. Make an audio or video presentation
    • Record audio (in English) to be loaded to the website.
    • Your submission must be directly aligned with the theme.
    • Audio must be in the format .mp3, .m4a, .ogg or .wav.
    • Audio recordings must not be more than seven minutes in duration.
    • For audio recordings, you must include a short summary of the content.  For example, ‘An audio by Joe Smith about how his stutter made him a better person.
    • Record a video (or PowerPoint presentation, slideshow or similar, in English or with English subtitles) to be loaded to the website via YouTube.
    • Your submission must be directly aligned with the theme.
    • We cannot accept large video files sent by email, so please upload them to YouTube and send us the link to the video.
    • Video recordings must not be more than seven minutes in duration.
    • For video recordings, you must include a short summary of the content.  For example, ‘A video by Joe Smith about how his stutter made him a better person.
    • All submissions must be accompanied by a photo and a bio, in a separate file from the submission. The bio is a short introduction of who you are and your background. It must not be more than 150 words.
    • All images should be attached as separate attachments. Images in PDF documents are not acceptable.
  3. Write about the International Stuttering Awareness Day event(s) in your country.
    • Write a short summary about what your association is doing for the ISAD (or send a max 3 min video). One of the points of the Online Conference is to raise awareness of International Stuttering Awareness Day and find out what others are doing.  This will be included in the Around The World session. If your association is doing something special, please let us know. For that we need the following information.
      • your country
      • your group’s name, if affiliated with a group
      • what you are doing for International Stuttering Awareness Day this year
      • include any venues, dates and times of activities, so others in your country can support you!
      • all images should be attached as seperate attachments, do not submit PDF.
  4. Reminder: For all presenters in the conference we ask you to:
    • Provide a short bio about yourself (not more than 150 words) with a picture of your head/face attached to the file, as an introduction of who you are and your background.
    • All images should be attached as seperate attachments. Do not submit PDF.
    • During the Online Conference, you will need to monitor the page where your submission is stored and respond to comments made by others every few days.
    • Send all emails/submissions/requests, including your contact details, to isad@isad.live, so we can contact you if we need to.  All submissions are due by August 31, 2022.  If you intend to submit please let us know as soon as possible so we can prepare for the number of submissions.  Late submissions will not be accepted.

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Instructions for visitors

  • Each submission has a threaded discussion at the bottom of the page for your comments and questions.
  • You can enter the conference by clicking on the top menu bar and read the content without a login.
  • If you would like to comment or ask a question you must register to create a login. We have a login requirement to help us prevent spam, duplication and inappropriate posts. You can register or login using your Facebook, Twitter or Google, as shown on the login/register pages. Login and register options appear on the right navigation bar.
  • If you are posting comments on a submission, please check previous comments to be sure your question hasn’t already been asked. Also please check the replies to comments by others, as the authors give a lot of information, tips and ideas that might be interesting and useful for you.
  • We have provided a space for participants to ask questions to Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) and other professionals in the field.  The professionals will monitor the questions in the ‘Talk to a Professional’ forum.
  • We have also provided a section where you can ask PWS about their lives, work, coping skills, advice, etc. The PWS will monitor the questions in the ‘Talk to a PWS’ forum. For those of you using the ‘Talk to a Professional’, the ‘Talk to a PWS’  and the ‘ISAD Around the World’ pages, please read the instructions on each introduction page before posting to that topic.
  • You can see and comment on submissions between October 1 and October 31.  After October 31 you can still see submissions but you cannot comment.
  • To allow our authors and panel members to respond to questions, please post your questions and responses before October 22, as we will close this possibility after the 23rd, to give them a chance to give everyone a thorough reply before the live conference ends on the 31st. So if your question or comment hasn’t been answered before the 22nd, they will be before the end of October.
  • An automated translation service can be found on the right side of each page of this website. 
  • The authors’ submissions will be permanently archived on the International Stuttering Awareness Day site pages for future reference.

We hope you enjoy the conference!

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Find your way through the website

The online conference consists of different parts, as you can see in the green header on top. 

  • ISAD2023 will bring you back to the starting page for this year’s online conference
  • Papers presented by will take you to the submissions for this year. As you can see in the section on the right, they are divided into
    • Creative Expression: Poems, cartoons, drawings, songs
    • Research, Therapy and Support: All about the latest news on research, therapy and support groups
    • Stories and experiences with stuttering by PWS: Personal stories from PWS, but also our allies, such as friends, parents, teachers, etc.
    • Kids corner: We have now created a space especially for kids up to 12, a special place where kids can share their stories, drawings, videos and other creative expressions
    • Teens corner: We also have created a space especially for young PWS between 13-20, where youth can share their stories and creative expressions
    • Parents corner: Parents share their stories
  • Talk to a Professional will take you to a page where you can ask your questions to a team of professionals in the field of stuttering.
  • Talk to a PWS will take you to a page where you can ask questions about living with stuttering to a team of people who stutter from different parts of the world. 
  • Around the world is to post and read about what’s planned for and around the ISAD in your country.
  • Feedback gives you the opportunity to share your feedback about the conference
  • Previous ISADs gives you access to ALL the previous ISAD online conferences since 1998! You can no longer comment, but there is a wealth of information on stories, therapies, research and creative expressions from people from all over the world.

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Background

The International Stuttering Awareness Day, ISAD, (October 22) began in 1998, spear-headed by Michael Sugarman, Oakland, California. ISAD recognizes the growing alliance between SLPs and consumers, who are learning from each other and working together to share, give support, and educate one another and the general public on the impact that stuttering has on individuals’ lives. Online Conferences, organized by Judy Kuster, have been an integral part of International Stuttering Awareness Day since its inception. 

Judy Kuster, currently emeritus professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato, put together the ISAD Online Conference every year since its inception in 1998 up to and including 2012, when Judy retired from chairing these wonderful conferences.  Judy continues her work managing the Stuttering Home Page. A global team has formed to produce, run and moderate the ISAD Online Conference. We hope we can live up to the high expectations of previous conference attendees.

Our vision: As a worldwide conference, we celebrate a wealth of perspectives and stories as we unite to raise awareness and work towards ‘creating a world that understands, accepts, and supports people who stutter’. 

Our mission: The mission of the ISAD Online Conference is to carry on a tradition of education by offering a conference-type experience in the form of personal stories, videos, creative expression, therapy ideas, and research, along with ongoing discussions about stuttering.  This conference connects people who stutter and their allies, encouraging meaningful dialogue around stuttering and allowing us to learn from a diversity of voices.

For participants who need some basic information about stuttering, please read about Stuttering from the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association. Additional information is available on the Stuttering Home Page.

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DISCLAIMER

THE CONTENT DISPLAYED ON THE WEBSITE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE NAMED AUTHORS. ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE THE OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT NECESSARILY OF THE ISAD TEAM. IF YOU PLAN TO REPUBLISH OR TRANSLATE, YOU MIGHT LIKE TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR, BUT ALWAYS REFER TO THE SOURCE PAGE/S ON ISAD.LIVE.

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